1946, the first post-World War II year, finds Tribune police reporter Snap Malek hip deep in a murder case. Someone has stabbed his cousin's British war bride to death in their Bohemian neighborhood home in Pilsen. As the prime suspect, the meek and self-effacing man is jailed, and Malek, convinced of his innocence, begins a dogged hunt for the murderer. Snap's rogue investigation takes him into the shadowy blue-collar saloon world of Pilsen, where he encounters a mélange of characters, including cynical and hard-bitten factory workers, a tragic war widow, and a former professional prizefighter--all "bar friends" of the murdered woman. Despite objections from the police, Malek presses on, incurring the anger of one of the bar's habitués, and fighting for his life in a bare-knuckle slugfest in a Pilsen street. Determined, Malek hires the city's best defense attorney, encounters legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and deals with the traumatic emotional distraction of reporting on one of the nation's worst-ever train wrecks that rocked the western Chicago suburb of Naperville. Finally, when Snap turns his attention back to the murder case, he finds multiple surprises and an unexpected and tragic resolution.

1946, the first post-World War II year, finds Tribune police reporter Snap Malek hip deep in a murder case. Someone has stabbed his cousin's British war bride to death in their Bohemian neighborhood home in Pilsen. As the prime suspect, the meek and self-effacing man is jailed, and Malek, convinced of his innocence, begins a dogged hunt for the murderer.

Snap’s rogue investigation takes him into the shadowy blue-collar saloon world of Pilsen, where he encounters a mélange of characters, including cynical and hard-bitten factory workers, a tragic war widow, and a former professional prizefighter–all "bar friends" of the murdered woman. Despite objections from the police, Malek presses on, incurring the anger of one of the bar’s habitués, and fighting for his life in a bare-knuckle slugfest in a Pilsen street.

Determined, Malek hires the city’s best defense attorney, encounters legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and deals with the traumatic emotional distraction of reporting on one of the nation’s worst-ever train wrecks that rocked the western Chicago suburb of Naperville. Finally, when Snap turns his attention back to the murder case, he finds multiple surprises and an unexpected and tragic resolution.

In the shadowy metropolis that is 1938 Chicago, Steve Malek is a Tribune police reporter in a city gripped by the Kelly-Nash political machine and the post-Capone crime syndicate. In Malek's depression-era world, the Tribune is the largest of the town's fiercely competative daily papers. With the winds of change blowing in, Malek senses the story of a lifetime when a reform candidate for mayor is gunned down by an unknown assailant.

Incurring the anger of his editors, Malek ranges far beyond his beat, plunging into a maverick investigation of the murder that soon spins beyond his control. However, it's the other side of the law, displeased with Malek's inquiries, that leaves him dangling on the edge of life and death.

Along this precarious journey, Malek is dazzled by actress Helen Hayes, and crosses paths with Richard J. Daley, legendary Tribune publisher Robert R. McCormick, Al Capone, and pitching great Dizzy Dean, who after being traded to the Cubs at the start of the '38 season, helps lead the race for the pennant, never imagining he will be the key to Malek's very survival!